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FATHER'S ADVICE: 



A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 



y by 

E. P. MILLER, M. D. 

PHYSICIAN TO THE NEW HYGIENIC INSTITUTION, AND 

TURKISH BATH, NO. 41 WEST TWENTY-SIXTH STREET, NEW 

YORK. AUTHOR OF "VITAL FORCE," "DYSPEPSIA," 

"HOW TO BATHE," "THE IMPROVED TURKISH OR 

ROMAN BATH," ETC. 




/ 

NEW YORK: 
MILLER, HAYNES & CO. 
41 West Twenty-Sixth Street. 
1870. 



T*+. 



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» » « 

Entered,according to act of Congress, 

in the year 1870, by 

ELI P. MILLER, M. D., 

in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at 
Washington. 



\ 



A FATHER'S ADVICE. 



MY DEAR CHILD: 

You are now old enough to know- 
good from evil; you are old enough to 
understand what sin means; you know 
that when you tell a lie, or take what is 
not your own, you commit a sin; but do 
you know that sin means disobedience to 
God's laws of every kind? 

Do you know, too, that when God 
formed your body, he made laws by 
which every part of that body should be 
governed and preserved ? Do you know 
that he made a law for the eye, that it 
should have light or it would become 



a father's advice: 



weak and useless; but that the light 
must not be too strong, — like the direct 
rays of the sun, for instance, — or the 
sight would be injured? Do you know 
that he made a law for the skin, that 
it should be kept clean or the little pores 
— of which it contains several millions 
— would be clogged up, and prevent the 
impurities of the body from passing 
away? that he made laws by which the 
food you eat shall be digested and go 
to make blood, and bone, and muscle, 
and nerve, and brain ? 

Now, disobedience to any of these 
laws is sin, and if the disobedience is 
continued, suffering is sure to follow as 
a penalty. 

God made every organ of your body 
with the intention that it should perform 
a certain work. If you wish to see, you 
use your eyes; if you want to hear, your 



A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 5 

ears are called in use; you would not 
think of walking on your hands nor 
using your pencil with your feet, nor 
putting food in your nose; Nature 
teaches you better than this; but Nature 
has not taught you the proper use of all 
your organs, and there may be bad 
children or wicked servants around you 
who have taught, or will teach you to 
use some of your organs in a way that 
is sinful — I refer to the organs w T hich 
make you a little boy, and I write this 
book especially for you, that you may 
know what is right and what is wrong 
with regard to this part of your body. 

Perhaps you have thought that these 
organs, wmich are called sexual organs^ 
were vulgar, and impure, and ignoble; 
but I want to teach you that they are 
of the greatest possible importance; that 
God made them for a special purpose; 



a father's advice: 



and that they are most honorable if used 
only for that purpose. 

It is true that impurities taken from 
the blood in a fluid form, called urine, 
pass from the body through a portion 
of the sexual organs ; but Nature takes 
care of that, so I need only teach you 
that when God made mankind he made 
the sexual organs for the purpose of 
keeping the race alive. He made them 
so that when you are grown up to man- 
hood and are capable of taking care of 
yourself and others, you may, yourself, 
have children, and thus fill the highest 
position in the created universe, the po- 
sition of a parent. These organs are 
given to you as a sacred trust, that in 
maturer years you may be the means 
of giving life to those who shall live 
forever. 
. Now the purpose for which these 



A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 7 

organs were given is high, and holy, 
and honorable, and if used only for this 
purpose, in accordance with the laws 
which govern them, they will be the 
means of helping you to become great 
and honorable men. 

The Bible says that one part of the 
body must not exalt itself over another; 
but if there is any part which may be 
considered as the foundation, the cor- 
ner-stone of all the bodily and mental 
powers, of all the moral and spiritual 
greatness, it is the sexual part of our 
nature; and if this part is abused, if it 
is put to any use but that for which God 
made it — and he did not intend that it 
should be used at all until a man is fully 
matured — it will bring disease and ruin 
upon those who thus abuse it, and upon 
those who disobey the laws which God 
has made to govern it. 



8 a father's advice: 

If you have ever learned to handle 
your sexual organs, or to touch them 
in any way except to wash and keep 
them clean, let me tell you now that if 
you continue to do this you can never 
grow to be a strong and healthy and hap- 
py man. You must determine that from 
this hour you will never do such a thing 
again, however great may be the temp- 
tation. Your playmates may try to 
persuade you to do it, or some servant, 
even some grown-up person may tell 
you that it will do no harm ; but when 
I tell you that I am a physician, and 
that I see thousands of young men and 
boys who have pale cheeks, sunken eyes 
with dark rings around them, weak 
stomachs that can not digest food, lame 
backs, hearts all in a nutter with palpi- 
tation, weak and inflamed eyes, unsteady 
walk, crooked legs, deformed bodies, 



A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 9 

trembling hands, decayed teeth, hair 
dead, or gray, or falling out, and the 
sexual organs inflamed or wasted away, 
all on account of having handled and 
irritated those organs when they were 
children, then perhaps you will believe 
me, instead of believing those who are 
bringing misery and ruin upon them- 
selves and would prevail upon you to 
do the same. 

This habit of handling or exciting the 
sexual organs is called Self-abuse, be- 
cause every part of the body is abused 
and injured by it. 

Do not go with those who would teach 
you to do such things, or talk to you 
about them ; and if you know of any 
child who practices such habits, give 
him this book to read, or tell him the 
consequences of this terrible sin ! for it 
is a sin as dreadful as any that children 



IO A FATHERS ADVICE: 

can commit! It is worse than lying or 
stealing! for, although these are very 
wicked and will ruin your soul, yet this 
habit of self-abuse will ruin you both 
soul and body. 

If you practice self-abuse > even for a 
short time, you will be in such a condi- 
tion that you can take little interest in 
any thing or any body. You will be- 
come cross, and peevish, and fretful, 
dissatisfied with everything that is done 
for you ; you will not love to play, for 
you will feel too weak and "all-gone'' 
from the exhaustion which is the sure 
consequence of this dreadful habit! 

You will not care for books, or music, 
or birds, or flowers, because your mind 
will become so degraded by low and 
vulgar thoughts that you will be inca- 
pable of loving those things which are • 
pure and beautiful. You will not like 



A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. II 

to look people in the face, for you will 
feel as though they could read your 
habits in your eyes, and they can, or at 
least a good many physicians can. 

When I see a boy or man wasted, and 
weak, and listless, with great hollow 
eyes, and a sort of sallow tint on the hag- 
gard face, vrith the red hue of the lips 
faded, the ears white like marble, and 
the face covered with pimples, I know 
that they have committed the sin which 
will, if not abandoned, lead them down 
to death. 

There are also other signs which a 
physician can recognize; signs which 
show themselves as soon as the habit is 
begun. There is a change in the skin, 
in the eye, in the muscles, in the actions; 
and no child need hope to conceal his 
sin, for the effects of it are sure to be 
apparent. It is because I want to save 



12 a father's advice: 



you from these effects, because I want 
to save you from the fearful conditions 
which will surely come upon all who 
practice self-abuse, that I tell you these 
things. It is to save you from the ter- 
rible sufferings which you will sooner 
or later experience if you indulge in 
this sinful habit. 

If the sexual organs are handled it 
brings too much blood to these parts, 
and this produces a diseased condition; 
it also causes disease in other organs of 
the body because they are left with a 
less amount of blood than they ought 
to have. The sexual organs, too, are 
very closely connected with the spine 
and the brain by means of the nerves; 
and if they are handled, or if you keep 
thinking about them, these nerves get 
excited and become exhausted, and this 
makes the back ache, the brain heavy 



A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. I 3 

and dull, and the whole body weak. 

Then, too, by and by, when you are 
fourteen or fifteen or sixteen years old, 
if you handle yourself, this blood will 
pass away, or, rather, a fluid which is 
formed from the blood, and which is 
called Semen, will pass away, so that 
you will lose it entirely from your body; 
and you may think that you have gained 
something, in being able to throw off 
this fluid; you may think that this 
makes you more of a man ; but let me 
tell you, you are draining away the best 
part of your being! you are throwing off 
your very life with it! for not only is the 
body ruined by taking away the best 
part of that which should go to make 
muscle, and bone, and nerve, and brain, 
but it greatly weakens the intellect and 
finally destroys the mind and soul of 
him who thus wastes it. 



14 A FATHERS ADVICE: 

If you have never heard any thing of 
this before, then I am glad to have you 
learn the truth about these things before 
learning the error and falsehood which 
evil companions so often teach; but if 
you have heard of it, and have learned 
the evil habit, then I warn you to break 
it off at once and turn your thoughts to 
something pure and good and useful. 

If you do not, each day you continue 
to prcatice this habit, it will be more 
and more difficult to overcome; your 
sexual organs will become so weakened 
that this fluid of which I told you, this 
semen as it is called, which at first will 
pass away from you only when you 
choose to make it, will, after a time, 
pass off of itself when you are asleep, or 
even in the daytime when you have a dis- 
charge from the bowels, or when you ?7iake 
water. Riding on horseback will cause 



A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. I 5 

it to pass, or rocking hard in a rocking- 
chair ; or you may get so bad that the 
chafing of your clothes will produce 
an emission, as this discharge is called. 
You can have no control over this, you can 
not hinder or stop it. You will dread the 
coming of the night for fear of the emis- 
sion, and the morning will find you so weak 
and exhausted from the loss of your very 
life-force which oozes away i?i the semen, 
that you will have no energy or vigor left. 
Your whole, life will be a burden, your 
every duty an irksome task ! You will 
drag out a weary existence, feeling all 
the time that it is your own folly and 
sin that has brought upon you all your 
troubles. You will find you can never 
accomplish any thing great, either with 
mind or body; for this terrible loss of 
semen drains away and exhausts all the 
faculties of both body and mind. 



1 6 a father's advice: 

Self-abuse weakens every part of the 
system, and a great many young boys 
and a great many grown-up men, die 
of consumption, and heart disease, and 
brain disease, and many other diseases, 
just because they have wasted their best 
blood and weakened the system by this 
vile habit. A great many, too, have 
epilepsy, and paralysis, and St. Vitus's 
dance, because self-abuse has racked 
the nervous system till they have no 
control over themselves. 

Some become idiots, incapable of 
taking care of themselves. Some be- 
come crazy; in the insane asylums all 
over the land, are very many who have 
practiced self-abuse. Many of those 
who commit suicide, do it in conse- 
quence of having practiced this habit 
when they were young. Their life- 
powers have been wasted till they can 



A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 1 7 

not enjoy anything, and the world and 
all things in it seem so dark and un- 
lovely that they can not endure it any 
longer, and so they dash out the poor 
portion of this life which remains to 
them. The friends mourn and weep, 
and the world wonders what was the 
cause of the fearful deed! for they did 
not know till now that this man was 
not as happy as most men; but his 
physician knew it, and he does not 
wonder — perhaps he gives the friends 
a true statement of the condition of 
their lost darling, and then their grief 
is greater than before; they would 
give all they possess if they had only 
taught the poor sufferer when he was 
young, the evils of such sinful habits. 

Little boys who are practicing sel^- 
abuse are just as surely committing su- 
icide as the man who shoots himself or 



1 8 a father's advice: 

cuts his throat; for, as Henry Ward 
Beecher says, "it does not take a man 
with a rope around his neck to be a 
suicide, or with a portion of poison in 
his stomach. ,, 

You need not think that it is not 
hurting you because you do not suffer 
now, for the effects of this vice come 
on so slowly that the victim is often 
very near death before he knows that 
he is doing himself harm. This fearful 
habit saps the life-powers, drop by drop 
— it is like a little hole in the wall of a 
mighty reservoir, through which the 
water oozes, and it trickles down a- 
mongst the stones and the mortar and 
the earth, until, little by little, the whole 
structure is undermined, the foundation 
washed away, and only the ruins are 
left to tell what once was there. 

Just so it is with you, my dear child, 



A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. I 9 

if you commit this dreadful sin, and it 
is with the hope of saving you and 
many more like you, from just such 
fearful consequences as I have described, 
that this little book is written ; for every 
boy who is practicing self-abuse is tend- 
ing towards just such a fate. You may 

not become as bad or as miserable as 
some of those I have told you about, 
but you must not be bad at all. Do 
not you want to grow up to be a noble, 
high-toned, and honorable man? Do 
not you want to be able to use all the 
organs of your body and faculties of 
your mind as God intended they should 
be used, for high and holy purposes ? 
Surely you do not want to grow up a 
poor, weak, puny, dyspeptic, comsump- 
tive, scrofulous, degraded specimen of 
a man, always suffering, always com- 
plaining, always regretting that you 



20 A FATHERS ADVICE: 

were born and wishing you might die. 

Would you not rather grow up with 
a good stomach that can digest food 
well, and thus manufacture good blood? 
good lungs that can take in oxygen 
enough to keep the blood red and 
bounding? And if you have these you 
will be pretty sure to have a good brain, 
one that can think, and feel, and act, 
with a purpose. You will, perhaps, be 
able to become a philosopher, or a 
statesman, or an inventor, or an author, 
— a wise and useful man in every re- 
spect. You will have a finely formed 
body with strong muscles, and work 
and toil and care will be a pleasure to 
you for you will be capable ot perform- 
ing any labor, of enduring any hard- 
ship. You will grow up rosy, healthy, 
happy, and handsome; for happiness and 
beauty depend, in a great degree, upon 



A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 21 

the healthy condition of the body. 

On the other hand, if you practice 
the vile habit of self-abuse, you will 
be on the road that leads to just the 
conditions I have pointed out, or you 
may perhaps die before you are grown 
up. Many young boys die before they 
are fifteen years old, just because their 
nervous systems are ruined by self- 
abuse ; perhaps some of your playmates, 
whom you knew to be guilty of this sin, 
have died, and if so, you may be sure 
that that was one cause of their death ; 
for even though they might have had 
measles, or fever, or some other disease, 
yet their systems had been so drained 
of life-power by this habit that when 
these diseases came upon them they 
had not strength to resist them, but fell 
early victims to this terrible vice. 

This early death is certainly far pre- 



22 A FATHERS ADVICE! 

ferable to the dreadful life of those 
who practice self-abuse till they are 
grown up, for such are always saying, 
"Oh if I had only been taught when I 
was young the evils of this habit ! Now, 
my hopes are blasted as by the light- 
ning's shock ; I despise myself, and am 
incapable of enjoying any thing in this 
life, and I know I am hastening on to 
eternal woe ! " "I am constantly re- 
gretting what I have done, constantly 
angry with myself that I did not know 
better, constantly longing to be free 
from this worse than living death ! " 
"O God! if I had only known to what 
a terrible condition this habit would 
bring me !" "O doctor! I am sinking, 
sinking! Can not you save me from 
this dreadful hell?" 

Now, my dear boy, which course will 
you choose ? which path will you take ? 



A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 23 

You may think I have told more than 
is true, but I assure you that if you 
indulge in self-abuse, even for a short 
time, you are liable to come to the very 
worst condition I have named. I have 
not told one-half — no, not one-tenth 
part of the horrors of this terrible vice ! 
I do not want you to read this book 
and forget it, for it contains earnest, 
living truth, and if you will accept and 
follow its teachings, you will bless 
God as long as you live that you were 
saved from the sufferings I have de- 
scribed. Read it again and again, and 
lend it to your playmates, and if any 
refuse to believe, and prefer to run the 
risk rather than break away from the 
accursed habit, then be sure that you 
shun all such children, for they are 
already far on the way that leads to 
death. 



24 A FATHERS ADVICE: 

People often think they can leave 
off a bad habit any time they choose. 
This is a most fatal mistake, and is the 
cause of much misery and ruin. The 
moment you begin a bad habit of any 
kind, that moment you begin to lose 
the power to act right, and the longer 
the wrong course is continued the less 
power you will have to turn back. 

If you would be free from evil you 
must not think of, nor wish for, any- 
thing that is sinful or bad, for if you 
do, you will be almost sure to give way 
to sin. And even if you do not give 
way at the time, the bad thoughts will 
injure your nerves and pollute your 
mind so that you cannot be strong and 
pure. 

If you were playing in a field where 
there was a dangerous precipice, would 
you not thank me to warn you against 



A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 25 

the danger of going near it? If you 
were rowing a little boat on a great 
river and I knew there were frightful 
falls just below you of which you were 
unconscious, would you not think me 
your friend if I told you your nearness 
to them, and showed you how to keep 
your boat out of the current that would 
surely carry you over? Just that do I 
do here : the terrible whirlpool of self- 
abuse, which I here point out to you, is 
far more to be dreaded than the most 
frightful precipice, or the Falls of Ni- 
agara, for you might be dashed down 
there and only your body would be 
destroyed, but if you once come within 
the circle of this whirlpool, your mind 
and soul as well as body are almost 
sure to be lost. 

Now, would you like me to tell you 
something that will help to keep you 



26 a father's advice: 

from the terrible vice I have told you 
about? In the first place, never have 
secrets which you cannot tell to your 
father or your mother. Never say or 
do any thing you would be afraid or 
ashamed to have them know. Be very 
carefu] about the company you keep — 
Do not go with those who use coarse 
and vulgar language nor with servants 
and hired men who tell "smutty" stories. 
Never listen to any stories that you can 
not tell your parents, for if you shrink 
from telling them what you hear, you 
may be sure your minds will be misled 
by listening to it. Do not curse your- 
self by the use of impure language — 
Do not associate with boys or young 
men who talk about sexual things in a 
low and obscene way, for if you do 
you cannot keep pure and good. 

Do not read any books without first 



A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 2J 

showing them to your parents. Do 
not cherish low thoughts about the 
sexual organs, for God made them just 
as perfect as your hand, or your foot, 
or your eye, and they are more impor- 
tant than any of these organs, for you 
might have your hand or foot cut off, 
or your eye put out, and yet retain 
your health, your manhood, your nobil- 
ity of mind and soul ; but if you misuse 
and abuse your sexual nature, you can 
never be what you might have been if 
you had kept it unimpaired. 

Keep your mind constantly filled 
with thoughts that are pure, and there 
will be no room for those that are im- 
pure to come in. Be social and cheer- 
ful, and try to make every one around 
you happy, for this is the surest way fo 
be happy yourself. 

Do not allow yourself to think of 



28 a father's advice: 

using tobacco or strong drink, in any 
form, for these not only fire the blood 
and excite the passions, but they lead 
you into company that is low and 
degrading, and will make it impossi- 
ble for you to keep your mind filled 
with pure thoughts. Tea and coffee, 
too, and candies, sweetmeats, and spices, 
rich pies and cakes, rich gravies, hot 
biscuits, pickles, etc., all injure the 
digestive organs, make the blood hot 
and impure, and tend to lead you in- 
to evil habits — you have something else 
to do besides just living to eat, and you 
do not want to eat hurtful things just 
because they taste good, for this is mak- 
ing a wrong use of the sense of taste, 
and also a wrong use of the stomach, 
and is sure to bring disease and suffer- 
ing. Finally, do right in all things, 
not only because this will bring happi- 



A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 29 

ness and save you from evil, but because 
it is right, and then you will be sure to 
live in the way that leads to Heaven. 

God has given you a life which is to 
last forever, and the little time you 
spend on earth is as nothing to the ages 
upon ages which you are to spend in 
the world beyond; yet your earthly life 
is a very important part of your exist- 
ence, for it is here that the foundation 
is laid for either happiness or misery in 
the future. It is here that you decide 
your destiny, and your efforts to know 
and obey God's laws in your own body 
as well as in your soul will not only 
bring blessings to .you in this life, but 
never-ending happiness throughout 
eternity. 



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